Back to work on the GM Diorama

So after seeing a post from Angel on ThoseGundamGuys, I finally got the motivational push necessary to find the box that I had last stashed all the mostly sanded GM bits and pieces, and do something about it. Pulling the parts out of the box, I find 3 GMs in minor sub-assembly pieces. Time to sort out what parts belong to what GM, and to see about where I had last left off in the surface prep. I had previously done a decent amount of surface prep, but there were a few areas that still required attention.

After sorting out the parts and sorta putting a few together, I went and disassembled the Wagtail and the Power GM and put them on the skewers. I also took apart the Gouf Custom and put it on skewers. In hindsight, I should have also washed the damn parts before skewering them as they have been in the box for a while and having been handled and worked on; not washing the plastic may prove disastrous when I get down to painting and masking. Putting just these three kits on the skewers also shows that I’ve run out of skewers and I don’t have enough wood blocks. The todo list for tonight when I get off work will be to buy some more bamboo skewers and some wood blocks to create more holders. As well as washing and drying the already skewered pieces.

A quick little refresher for the purpose and idea of this build. A group of us want to make a large interlocking diorama circa 0083 to 0084 or so – which allows for use of units found in 0083 and AOZ. What started off as a Wagtail build off, quickly ballooned into a large diorama piece adding in three man teams of GMs. For the story telling purpose, this further expanded to a GM assault against an insurgent force of Zeon remnants. As we each progressed individually, we continued to add more and more GMs and Zeon suits to our diorama. My current number of suits on my section of the diorama is 5; the Powered GM, Wagtail, and GM Cannon (not yet built) mounting an assault on what appears to be an elevator opening to the base which is guarded by a Gouf Custom.

Now, here is where I have my 4th GM, a GM Command that has fallen in battle. Stealing and modifying Angel’s idea of having a Zaku smashed up against the side of the diorama’s canyon walls; I decided that for my “dead GM”, instead of riddling it with bullets and having him face down in the dirt, I’ll riddle him with bullets and add insult to injury; stick a Gouf Custom sword through him and have him smashed up against the side of the canyon.

I used a soldering iron to cut open the backpack for the sword’s insertion end and from the front of the GM Command, I opened it up and through the body so that the sword goes all the way through. I will be adding putty to the front of the GM to make it look like the metal bent out and curled, as well as closing up the hole from the melted plastic.

The last thing I did was cut the dead GM’s shield up and rough up the plastic so that it looks like the cut doesn’t look like a hot knife through butter, as is what a soldering iron would do through plastic. The shield was first cut with a saw, then the edges melted carefully with a soldering iron, then using styrene cement, the edges were softened while I used a hobby knife to cut little jagged edges into the damage area.

I still have the brand spanking new GM Cannon II to build, and only 4 months of time to complete the project. I think this is doable.